.1 



lereward the Fenman 



REPRINTED 



From the " Spalding Free Press," June 25th, 1889. 



CONTRIBUTED BY 



W. E. FOSTER, F.S.A. 



Price One Penny. 



SPALDING: 

printed by henry watkinson, "free press offices," hall 






HEREWARD THE FENIAN. 



For a great number of years the good people of 
Bourne have claimed Hereward as a former towns- 
man and owner of the castle which formerly stood in 
that place, and was for many generations the residence 
of the Wake family. 

I hope I shall not raise any violent hostility by 
trying to rob the town of its hero. A fenman myself, 
the descendant of men wViose remains rest in the 
beautiful Abbey Church < f Bourne, I should be very 
glad if that town could, with any truth, claim Here- 
ward as a native ; indeed, I am somewhat reluctant in 
depriving the residents of any comfort they may 
enjoy in the belief that Hereward was formerly their 
local chieftain, but I feel the Bourn people themselves 
would not care to support a fallacious claim if they 
knew it to be such. 

It has struck me the inhabitants have been too 
ready to make the defender of the Camp of Refuge 
their own, and forget their undoubtedly great man — 
Robert Manning. It is but natural that we should 
feel a fascination for the gallant leader, embarked in 
a well-nigh hopeless ctuse, fighting with his raw- 
levies of fenmen against the trained troops of the in- 
vader, though we have no authority for believing he 
was the leader of the insurrection itself. Who tliat 
loves his country, can help his heart beating in 
sympathy with that native warrior defending his 
hojne against a mercenary and merciless foreign foe, 
who had trampled underfoot all that was sacred to the 
free subjects of Harold, making the last stand, Saxon 
and Dane so blended as they were in this district, 
shoulder to shoulder, against their common foe, to 
protect their fatherland — -^hen- holv land, with its 
abbeys and manors, so soo'n'io "be given by the Con- 
queror to foreign monks anjU^orman followers. Must 
not the captain, who when he found the nobles and 
prelates in the Camp of Refuge arranging to sur- 
render the isle to William, scorned to ask terms from 
the invader, who with his personal followers, cutting 
his way through the Norman ranks to regain his 
native fens, where he most probably tormented the 
Normans for many a day, have been a fit theme for 
song among the Saxons for many an age ? 

Let, however. Bourne delight in her celebrated son, 
Robert Manning, who conquered in the paths of 



peace, and as the pen is often mightier than the 
sword, so this townsman of theirs has laid not only 
England, but the whole of the English-speaking com- 
munity, under a debt of gratitude in the influence he 
had over their mother tongue. I cannot do better 
^ than quote the words of Mr. E. A. Freeman, in a 

^' paper delivered to the Lincolnshire Architectural 

Society, when they met at Grantham, in 1875 : — 

Written English.^" Standard English," in the phrase 
of Mr. Oliphant, is certainly neither the Northumbrian 
of York nor the Saxon of Winchester, it is the inter- 
mediate AngUau speech of Eastern Mercia. It is the 
speech of a district, the exact bounds of which I will not 
take on me to define, but within which one riding of 
liincolnshire and part of another is certainly taken in. 
We might not be very far wrong if we ruled that modern 
English is the language of the Gyrwas, Perhaps there 
is someone here from Bourne eager to complain that I 
have robbed him of Hereward. I would bid the Bourne 
man enlarge his patriotism, so as to take in the whole 
shire, for if I have taken away Hereward from Bourne, I 
have certainly not taken him away from Lincolnshire. 
And. even if I have robbed the Bourne man of one 
worthy, I have another to give him back instead. It was 
a Lincolnshire man — a Bourne man — who gave the 
English language its present shape. 

Standard English is the speech of the Gvrwas, thrown 
into literary form by Robert Manning, of Bourne, Win- 
chester, York, London, have been content to adopt the 
tongue of Holland and the neighbouring lands. 

Hereward, if not a great hero of history, can certainly 
be claimed as one of the leading heroes of romance. For 
many ages much has been written about him, but, 
unfortunately, based on very little reliable authority. 

Probably of recent works on this Saxon warrior, the 
book styled " Hereward the Wake," by the late Eev. 
Charles Kingsley, is perhaps the best known. One 
does not like to criticise that work too severely, for 
every Lincolnshire man who has read it, and regarded 
it in the light of a novel only, must have derived great 
pleasure ; parts, too, of the prelude have always struck 
me as containing some of the best word pictures on 
the fenland. 

Every antiquary must, however, deplore that Kings- 
ley fell into the historical blunders he did, with re- 
ference to the parentage of Hereward, and regret that 
he did not treat his novel throughout as a pure 
romance. He, however, begins by introducing Here- 
ward as the Wake, Lord of Bourne, and ancestor of 
the family of Wake; though he states that Hereward's 
pedigree is a matter of no importance, save to a few 
antiquaries and possibly to his descendants, the 
ancient and honourable house of Wake; yet in spite 
of that statement he deliberately gives his reasons for 
thinking Hereward was the son of Earl Leofric and 
the celebrated Godiva, who " built herself an efverlast- 
ing name." 

It is almost inconceivable to imagine that a inan of 
Kingsley's learning could have fallen into so many 
blunders as he has in his prelude. If calling Hereward, 
as he does, the last of the English, were not absurd 
enough — What are we Lincolnshire people now ? Truly 



English, I hope ! he was more inconsistent still when 
he calls him a Viking, and then wants lis to share his 
belief that Hereward was the son of Earl Leofric and 
Countess Godiva, who were leading Mercian Saxons. 
Then he calls him the Wake ; how could he be 
that if he were the son of Earl Leofric and 
Godiva? The wonder is he did not describe the 
Earl as Earl Leofric Wake and his wife, Lady Godiva 
Wake, of Bourne Hall, Lincolnshire. It would have 
been iust as consistent his doing so, as what the rev. 
Canon has actually done. It is a great pity he did 
not consult Bishop Trollope, whom he thanks for 
numberless details in his work on the parentage of 
Hereward, for that gentleman would never have coun- 
tenanced Kingsley'g theory that Hereward was the 
son of Earl Leofric and Godiva — a theort that is 
totally opposed by every reliable authority, and which 
may be put down to thevividimaginationof Kingsley. 

There is another local and well-known novel, "The 
Camp of Refuge," in which Hereward is made the 
hero and the fenland the scene of a very pleasing 
story. The author of this very quaint work very 
wisely did not do as Kingsley did — enter into any ex- 
planations for his statements — but simply treated the 
same with a novelist's licence, and dealt with Here- 
ward accordingly. Tke members of the Lincolnshire 
Architectural Society, several years since (prior to 
the recent flood of light that has been thrown on the 
records of the Norman period), heard a paper by 
Bishop Trollope on Hereward. I fear I shall have to 
run counter to some of that gentleman's views ; but I 
take it that if he were now to give another paper on 
Hereward, he would modify the opinions he then ex- 
pressed — at least I should hope so. Among the lead- 
•ing works that writers have drawn much of their in- 
formation, concerning Hereward is Ingulph's 
Chronicle. I think every South Lincolnshire anti- 
quary has often wished he could place the same re- 
liance on that chronicler of Croyland that the anti- 
quaries of the last century did ; at least, personally, I 
have often wished I could, but recent research has 
shown it is impossible to do so, unless you wish to be 
wilfully misled. The charters set out with so much 
pains have been clearly proved to be nothing but 
clumsy frauds of grasping monks ; and although 
there may be some germs of truth pervading this re- 
cord, the MSS., taken as a whole, from an historical 
point of view, is, I fear, little better than Guilliver's 
Travels. 

The other sources from which writers have woven 
their accounts of the deeds of Hereward are De Gestis 
Herewardi Saxonis, and a French poem of Geoffrey 
Gaimer : these are even less worthy of credence than 
Ingulph, and may be dismissed in the same summary 
way. 

I do not wish to go into the details of the various 
romances concerning Hereward, whether as given 
in Irgulph, De Gestis Berewardi Saxouis, 
or the French poem of Geoffrey Gaimer, nor do I 



think it seriously worth discussing, Kingsley's delibe- 
rate conviction that Hereward was the son of Earl 
Leofric and Godiva— it is his alone — when the main 
reason he gives for his belief was : that Hereward 
was -not Lord of Bourne, which belonged to Morker, 
and which Bishop Trollope tried to prove he was, 
though the latter gentleman never for a moment 
assumed Hereward could be the son of the famous 
Mercian Earl. The whole of the " fictions " on Here- 
ward differ in almost every detail ; some of which ar« 
manifestly absurd ; they differ on his origin, his 
marriages, his actions, his travels, his adventures, and 
bis death. 

As for Hereward being a " Wake," or that the 
family of the Wakes, being descended from the bold 
Camp of Refuge soldier, I believe neither De Gestis, 
Gaimer, Ingulph, or the history of Ely ever mention 
the name of Wake in connection with Hereward. I 
am unaware of it being so used until several centuries 
after that patriot's death. But if it pleases the family 
of W*5ie to claim descent from the brave Saxon 
soldier, one can have no objection. It does not 
hurt Hereward, and it may please them. If they 
beheve in their descent, let them emulate their remote 
ancestor's bravery, and with equal valor and skill 
draw their swords, if ever occasion required it, in 
defence of their fatherland. 

Let us see what can be gathered from the reliable 
records concerning Hereward. Firstly, the Dooms- 
day Book, from the terse outlines of which much can 
be learnt. 

We find in Laughton (Loctone) Oger had one 
carucate of land rateable to gelt— Gilbert de Gaunt 
has the soke over the same. 

Two manors in the same Laughton, Toll and Here- 
ward had four bovates of land rateable to gelt : the 
land is half a carucate. Oger has there 2 carucates 
in demesne, and 4 villeins, holding J a carucate, and 
\ part of two churches, and 10 acres of meadow, and 
6 acres of underwood. The annual value in King 
Edward's time was and it is now 408. 

In the Kesteven claims we find the men of Aveland 
Wapertake testify that the Manor of Bourne wa? 
Earl Morcar's in King Edward's time ; and that Oger 
(Breton) now holds it unto the King. Drogo de 
Beuere claims it, but he does so unjustly. 

Again, St. Guthlac's land which Oger holds in Eip- 
pingale, was, the Wapertake man say, the Demesne 
farm of the monks (of Croyland), and that Ulchil, the 
abbot, let it to Hereward for as agreed between them- 
selves year to year ; but the abbot became repos- 
sessed of the same before Hereward fled- from the 
country, because he had not kept his agreement with 
him. 

By these entries in Doomsday, to which may 
justly be given the premier place of the Norman 
historical records, we may fairly assume that Here- 
ward was a Thane in Lincolnshire, holding an 



estate at Kippingale and Loctone, and that he had 
to flee the country (for what reason we do not kuow). 
That he was not the Lord of Bourne nor held the 
manor there, as that manor had been Earl Morcar's, 
and with his large possessions was afterwards given 
by the Conqueror to Oger de Breton, this record 
makes it impossible for us to believe that Hereward 
had ever held the Manor of Bourne ; for if he had, 
can we imagine it possible the men of the Aveland 
Wapertake many of I is old neighbours, in their 
return of claims, would have omitted to record the 
fact, even (which is not likely) if the Commissioners 
in their return had forgotten to do so in their first 
survey, for the name of Hereward would at tJiat 
date be too well remembered by the Norman 
possessors of fen soil ; and the Norman Commis- 
sioners could not have failed to have known of Here- 
ward and the seat of his former power. 

Still more strange would the omission of Here- 
ward's name from the Bourne return have been, if he 
had been a member of the powerful Saxon family of 
Earl Leofric ; for he would have been nearly related 
to Harold, the late king, and to the wife of Ivo-tail- 
bois, the lord of Spalding. I may here observe that 
if Hereward were related to the Mercian family of 
Leofric, it is most strange we do not find him as a 
witness to any of their charters ; and still more 
strange that we should not find any mention of him 
in the registers of Spalding Abbey, or in any of the 
public records of the kingdom — with the single ex- 
ception of Doomsday, which further states a Here- 
ward was holding lands in Worcestershire as an 
undertenant and not in capite. 

In addition to the Doomsday, we have from reliable 
authorities but little of Hereward. 

The Anglo Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 1070-1071, gives 
the following account : — 

The Lent of this year the King caused all the 
ministers which are in England to be harried. On this 
same year came Swegn, King of Denmark, into the 
Humber ; and the people of the country came to meet 
him, and made a treaty with him, thinking that 
he would overrun the land. Then came into 
Ely Christien, the Danish Bishop, and Osbearn 
the Earl, and the Danish house-carles with them, 
and the English people of all the fenlands came to them, 
thinking that they would win all the land. Then 
the monks of Peterborough heard say that their own 
men intended to harry the Minster, that is, Hereward 
and his troop ; and that was because they heard say 
that the King had given the government of the Abbey to 
a French abbot, who was named Turold, and that he 
was a very stern man, and that he had then come from 
Stamford with all his Frenchmen. Then early in the 
morning came all the outlaws, with many ships, and 
wished to come into the Minster; but the monks re- 
sisted, so that they could not enter. Then they laid fire 
to it and burnt up all the houses of the monks and all the 
town except one house. Then by the means of fire they 
gained an entrance at Bull-nithe-gate, and the monks 
came and met them, and besought peace from them ; 
but they cared nothing. They went into the Minster, 
climbed up to the holy rood, took the crown from our 



Lord's head, which was all of wrought gold; they then 
took the bracket which was beneath His feet, which was 
all of red gold ; they climbed up to the steeple, 
brought down the hoeece which was there hidden— it 
was all of gold and of silver— and took then two 
golden shrines and nine of silver, and they took 
fifteen large crosses, as well of gold as of 
silver, and so many treasures in money and 
in vestments, and in books, as no man could count 
to another ; and they said that they did this from their 
fidelity to the Minster. After this they betook them- 
selves to their ships; they proceeded to Ely, and then 
stowed away all the treasure there. The Danish men 
imagined that they would overcome the Frenchmen 
and drove out all the monks, and left there none but 
one monk, who was named Leofwyne Lang (the tall) : he 
lay sick in the infirmary. Then came Tborold the 
Abbot, and eight times twenty Frenchmen with him, all 
fully armed. When he came thither he found it all 
consumed, within and without, excepting the church 
alone ; but the outlaws were at that time all afloat, for 
they knew that he intended coming thither. This was 
done on the 4th day of the nones of June (A.D. 1070) 

A.D. 1070-1. In this year the Earl Eadwin and the 
Earl Morker escaped, and went at large in the woods 
and fields. Then went Earl Morker to Ely by ship, and 
Earl Eadwin was slain ignominiously by his own men 
and Bishop Aegelwin and Siward Beam came, and many 
hundred meu with them into Ely. And when King 
William understood that he summoned a ship army and 
a land army, and surrounded that land all about, and 
made a bridge and entered witbin, and the ship army 
on the side by the sea. The outlaws then all submitted 
namely, Bishop Aegelwyn and Earl Morker, and all 
those that were with them, excepting only Here- 
ward, and all they who would go with him 
and he led them out honourably. And the king took 
all their ships and weapons, and great treasures, and he 
took all the men and did with him what he would. 

Florence of Worcester contains the following men- 
tion of Hereward — 

A.D. 1071. Landfranc and Thomas went to Rome and 
received the pall from Pope Alexander. Earls Edwin 
and Morkar, because King William sought to put them 
in confinement, escaped secretly from his court and for 
some time continued in rebellion against him ; but when 
they saw that their enierprise had not turned out suc- 
cessfully, Edwin determined to go to Malcolm, King of 
the Scots, but was killed on the journey, in an ambush 
laid by his own people. But Morkar and Aegelwine, 
Bishop of Durham, Siward, surnamed Barn, and Here- 
ward, a most valiant man, with many others, 
took ship and went to the Isle of 
Ely. desiring to winter there. When the 
king heard of this, he blocked up every outlet on the 
eastern side of the islaud by his sailors, and commanded 
a bridge of two miles in length to be constructed on the 
western side; and when they saw that they were thus 
shut in, they gave up resistance, and all except the 
valiant Hereward, who made his escape through the 
fens, with a few others, surrendered to the king, who at 
once sent Bishop Aegelwine to Abiagton, where he was 
placed in confinement, and died the same winter. As 
for the earl and the rest who were scattered throughout 
England, he placed some in confinement, and permitted 
some to go free, with the loss of their hands or eyes. 

Such are the only three reliable records relating to 
Hereward, and these agree in showing him to have 
been a gallant soldier, who, when the leading Saxons 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 

llillillllllllll 



in the Isle of Ely sarreodered to the Conqi 
his band, cut their way out of the island an( 
to the fens. No mention is made in either ^^ >,wv, ^..^ 
chronicles of Hereward being of the family of Earl 
Leofric, which, if he had been, judging from the man- 
ner in which the chronicles dealt with the other lead- 
ing Saxons of the period, would have been done in 
this case. I would ask, " Do not the three entries 
confirm Doomsday ? " They show that Here- 
ward, knowing the nature of his native meres, a 
daring fen captain, preferred to retreat with his fol- 
lowers to the fortress of the marshes than give him- 
self up to the cruel power of William I. And that in 
this impassable fortress, aided by a friendly popula- 
tion, he, most likely, for a time, carried on a guerilla 
warfare; to the terror of the foreigners, who had the 
fens apportioned to them ; and that he most 
probably afterwards became reconciled to William, 
and held, until his death, property in Warwickshire 
and Worcestershire, 

There may be some truth in Ingulph's account of 
Hereward's marriage with Torfrida, and his be- 
coming reconciled to the Conqueror, and dying in 
peace. 

I hope that all who think that Hereward and Tor- 
frida sleep in the ruined nave of Croyland, will remember 
the ruinous state of that once glorious pile, and con- 
tribute to the funds that now are being raised by the 
Rector to keep that church from destruction. Let us, 
as fenmen, be content with claiming Hereward, as a 
brave and skilful Lincolnshire soldier, who fearlessly 
drew his sword to defend his fatherland against a 
foreign foe, and with that courage that knows not de- 
feat, scorned to surrender to the invader, 
until he was one of the last of 
the Saxons to bend his neck to the 
Norman yoke ; and let us be proud of him as a fen- 
man — as one of the people, and not one of those who, 
by their station should have led a united people 
against the invader, but by whose jealousies and 
treacheries, allowed the Conqueror of Hastings to so 
easily subjugate the nation ; and as a bold and skilful 
esquire, disgusted with the action of the nobility, 
as a patriot, who determined with his neighbours to 
make a stand to save the fen country from being seized 
by William, is the picture I like to draw of Hereward. 
W. E. FOSTER, F.S.A. 

Aldershot, June, 1889. 



021 934 003 5 



iBiiia t 

021 934 003 5 



